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democratically

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 15 September 2025

Etymology

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Partly from democratical +‎ -ly (suffix forming adverbs), and from democratic +‎ -ally (variant of -ly), modelled after Middle French democratiquement (modern French démocratiquement).[1][2]

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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democratically (comparative more democratically, superlative most democratically)

  1. In a democratic way; according to the principles of democracy.
    Antonyms: nondemocratically, undemocratically
    a democratically elected leader
    • 1603, Plutarch, “[The Symposiaques or Table-questions.] The Second Question. Whether the Master of the Feast ought Himselfe to Assigne unto Every Guest His Place, or Suffer Them to Sit as They will Themselves?”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 647:
      [T]hey ſee that they vvere not ſummoned ariſtocratically to a ſenate houſe of lords and great States, but invited democratically and after a popular manner to ſupper, vvhere the pooreſt may take his place vvith the richeſt, like as in the ſtate of a citie and common-vvealth, called Democratie.
    • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Severall Kinds of Common-wealth by Institution, and of Succession to the Soveraigne Power”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 98:
      Nor are thoſe Provinces vvhich are in ſubjection to a Democracie, or Ariſtocracie of another Common-vvealth, Democratically, or Ariſtocratically governed, but Monarchically.
    • 1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter IV, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC, section IV, page 48:
      He was not happy in the social changes of thirty years. Three decades ago, Dr. Westlake, Julius Flickerbaugh the lawyer, Merriman Peedy the Congregational pastor and himself had been the arbiters. That was as it should be; the fine arts—medicine, law, religion, and finance—recognized as aristocratic: four Yankees democratically chatting with but ruling the Ohioans and Illini and Swedes and Germans who had ventured to follow them.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “democratically, adv.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. ^ “democratically, adv.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Further reading

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